Workers are expected to start building the 75-unit Ascent at Hover Crossing at 1764/1780 Hover St. in August – a new rental project for low- and moderate-income families.
The project is expected to include an early childhood education center, which will be built, in part, with a $2 million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation.
The Longmont Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, which consists of the Longmont City Council, approved the grant agreement during its meeting Tuesday night. Longmont City Manager Harold Dominguez, who is also the interim executive director of the Longmont Housing Authority, said the City Council has been focused on creating more housing and more early childhood education opportunities in the city for several years. He said that receiving the grant blended the two goals.
“We’re really appreciative of the Colorado Health Foundation and their commitment to, both, housing and early childhood education,” Dominguez said in a separate interview Tuesday. “Without that money, we wouldn’t be able to actually include early childhood education as part of this project.”
The Longmont Housing Authority has been working on a partnership with Wild Plum Center for Young Children and Families nonprofit group to operate the early childhood education center onsite, according to a city staff memo. The early childhood education center will include three classrooms serving children ages 0-3 years old from income-qualified families eligible for the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program who either live onsite or elsewhere in the community, the memo said.
“They definitely want us to support the families that are there but if we’re unable to … we can open it up to the broader public,” Dominguez said of the early childhood education center.
It isn’t immediately clear, exactly, how many children the center will accommodate. Staffers estimated it would be a little less than 40.
Construction is expected to last between 16 and 18 months, according to Rogelio Mares, Longmont public information officer.
The Ascent at Hover Crossing will offer a mix of one- to four-bedroom housing units in addition to the onsite early childhood education center.
“I think it’s an amazing project,” Longmont Mayor Joan Peck said during Tuesday’s Longmont Housing Authority meeting. “I think Longmont should be very, very proud that we are doing this.”
